PCM

 ECON 2302 MICROECONOMICS   

Below you will find the learning objective, concept, idea, term, or theory that each question on the exam will cover. Each number in the following list refers to the question number on Exam 1 that will test your knowledge of that specific learning objective. Each of these topics/learning objectives is discussed in the textbook in the order that they are listed below.  A much better understanding can often be attained by working through MyEconLab assignments connected to any of these objectives.

Chapter 1

 

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

  1. Define economics and understand the importance of the fact that there are unlimited wants but only limited resources available to satisfy them.
  2. Distinguish the difference between microeconomics and macroeconomics.
  3. List and discuss the three basic economic questions every society must answer and the two antithetical answers to these questions of which existing societies are a mixture.
  4. Explain the use and importance of the assumption of "rationality" in economic analysis.
  5. Explain what economics means by "self interest" and the important role it plays in economic models.
  6. Explain the importance of models and understand the role of assumptions in economic models.
  7. Give a brief explanation of the concept of behavioral economics and bounded rationality.
  8. Distinguish between positive and normative economics with examples of each.
  9. Explain the difference between direct and inverse relationships.
  10. Construct a graph from a table of numbers.

Chapter 2

  After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
  1. Define what economists mean by the concept of scarcity.
  2. List and distinguish between the factors of production.
  3. Explain how scarcity is related to wants and needs and the concept of economic goods.
  4. Explain the conceptof opportunity cost.
  5. Draw a graph a production possibilities curve with capital goods measured on the vertical axis and consumption goods measured on the horizontal axis.
  6. Discuss the ideas of efficiency and inefficiency with reference to a PPC.
  7. Explain the idea of increasing opportunity cost and why economists think it exists.
  8. Discuss economic growth and how it is affected by the trade-off between consumption and capital goods.
  9. Define absolute and comparative advantage and explain how they differ.
  10. Discuss how specialization, the division of labor, and trade between nations is related to comparative advantage.

Chapter 3

  After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
  1. Explain the law of demand.
  2. Discuss the difference between money prices and relative prices.
  3. List and explain the other determinants of demand besides the price of the good or service.
    (Learning objective 24 is repeated in 25 to indicate that there will be two questions on this topic.)
  4. Explain the difference between changes in the quantity demanded and changes in demand.
  5. Illustrate the difference between changes in the quantity demanded and changes in demand.
  6. Explain the law of supply.
  7. List all the determinants of the quantity supplied of a good or service.
  8. Illustrate with a supply curve the difference between changes in the quantity supplied and changes in supply.
    (Learning objective 29 is repeated in 30 to indicate that there will be two questions on this topic.)
  9. Describe how the interaction of demand and supply determines the equilibrium price and quantity of a good or service
  10. Illustrate with a demand and supply graph the process of determining market equilibrium quantity and equilibrium price of a good or service.

Chapter 4

 

  After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

  1. Discuss the essential features of the price system.
    (The following learning objective is listed twice to indicate that there will be two questions on this topic.)
  2. Evaluate the effects of changes in demand and supply on the market equilibrium price and quantity.
  3. Evaluate the effects of changes in demand and supply on the market equilibrium price and quantity.
  4. List the various methods of rationing.
  5. Describe the effects of effective price ceilings.
  6. Discuss the economics of rent control.
  7. Explain the effects of effective price floors.
  8. Illustrate the economics of agricultural price supports and discuss their impact on farmers and consumers with a Supply and Demand graph.
  9. Illustrate the economics of the minimum wage with Demand and Supply curves and discuss its impact on workers.
  10. Discuss the various types of government-imposed quantity restrictions on markets.